Fancy a Flutter?

"Should stem research be restricted?"
GCSE RE textbook

Immediately I would say "No!” After a brief study in biology i have been led to the conclusion that they can save lives and make people better, sorry healthier. They can cure grave illnesses and bring inexpressible happiness to entire families.

I then remembered a joke (Frankie Boyle I think?) "Sure let them (athletes) take steroids, I want to see someone run the 100m in 4seconds". At the time I of course found this rather amusing, but if you really consider it is it that funny?

Genetic engineering could ultimately be mankind's downfall, let me explain...

We are at the moment the superior race or being on the planet and in our known universe, we all have our religious beliefs but no one can deny that humans have the ability of free choice. However what happens if genetic engineering proceeds? Proceeds so far and fast that we are no longer the superior race, can no longer do what we please? We can't murder 6million Jews! We can't force people to die in S-21!

I'm lost in where genetic engineering can take us, like robotic technology we have a personal conscience and "moral responsibility" installed within us by our "maker/makers". With genetic engineering we are no longer the biggest or the most powerful. We could turn into the bear in the ring instead of the baiters, be the fox being hunted.

We do not yet fully understand the development of the embryo to a baby; can we really begin to make our own Frankenstein monsters? Although no one is suggesting that we are going to make a monster and I myself am fully supportive of the use of stem cells, no one can argue that humans have always lacked the ability of both control and judgment, for example Truman proclaiming that the development of an atomic weapon and use of it therefore causing the destruction of Hiroshima, was "the greatest thing in history." Could we be trusted?

In conclusion I believe that the human race's past atrocities and international management (for example we can put a man on the moon but can't feed everyone a bowl of rice a day?) have proven that we shouldn't be trusted to try to "create from scratch". After all would you risk the society you live in to be destroyed and the supreme human race to be overthrown? To be honest, it doesn't seem that bad a flutter?